Content transmission and communication systems, e.g., high speed data and television content transmission systems, serve numerous users (often many thousands), in which each user has one or more devices (e.g., display devices, gateways, set top boxes or modems) to process signals at the user's premise. These devices often contain sophisticated software having very large code images that may be changed in order to provide new services and to enhance existing services. Downloading code images from a central facility to devices in the field may thus require a large investment in servers and cause a substantial increase of network congestion over a significant period of time in order to transmit a large amount of information. The time to deliver a code image may take several hours depending on the scheduling over a large network. If downloading to a device is not successful, a subsequent complete or partial download is scheduled. The complexity of the downloading process is further compounded by the large number of devices that may be involved. Consequently, the downloading process may result in a substantial amount of resources being diverted from other network needs.